Deep femoral artery

Deep femoral artery
Deep femoral artery
	Cross-section through the middle of the right thigh.
Details
Source	Femoral artery
Branches	Lateral femoral circumflex; Medial femoral circumflex; Perforating
Vein	Deep femoral vein
Identifiers
Latin	arteria profunda femoris
TA98	A12.2.16.020
TA2	4685
FMA	20741
	Anatomical terminology [edit on Wikidata]

The deep femoral artery also known as the deep artery of the thigh, or profunda femoris artery, is a large branch of the femoral artery. It travels more deeply ("profoundly") than the rest of the femoral artery. It gives rise to the lateral circumflex femoral artery and medial circumflex femoral artery, and the perforating arteries, terminating within the thigh.

Structure

The deep femoral artery branches off the posterolateral side of the femoral artery soon after its origin.^[1]

It travels down the thigh closer to the femur than the femoral artery. It runs between the pectineus muscle and the adductor longus muscle. It runs on the posterior side of adductor longus muscle.^[1] It pierces the adductor magnus muscle, and may be known as the fourth perforating artery as it continues.^[1] The deep femoral artery does not leave the thigh;^{[citation needed]} terminating as perforating tissue branches within the thigh.^[2]

The deep femoral artery gives off the following branches:

Lateral circumflex femoral artery.^[1]^[2]
Medial circumflex femoral artery.^[1]^[2]
3 perforating arteries that perforate the adductor magnus muscle to the posterior and medial compartments of the thigh to connect with the branches of the popliteal artery behind the knee.^{[citation needed]} The perforating arteries arise in the anterior compartment of thigh. The terminal continuation of the deep femoral artery may be regarded as the fourth perforating artery.^[3]

The deep femoral artery is the main supply of oxygenated blood to the thigh.^[1]

The medial circumflex femoral artery is distributes to the adductor group (adductor longus, magnus, and brevis), gracilis, and pectineus. It also supplies the femoral head and neck.^[2]

The lateral circumflex femoral artery supplies muscles of the knee extensor group (vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, and rectus femoris).^[2]

This article incorporates text in the public domain from page 629 of the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Ginzburg, Enrique; Chong, Chee Kiong; Rich, Norman M. (2008-01-01), Asensio, JUAN A.; Trunkey, DONALD D. (eds.), "Vascular Anatomy of the Extremities", Current Therapy of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, Philadelphia: Mosby, pp. 467–472, doi:10.1016/b978-0-323-04418-9.50066-7, ISBN 978-0-323-04418-9
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Swift, Hilary; Bordoni, Bruno (2022), "Anatomy, Bony Pelvis and Lower Limb, Femoral Artery", StatPearls, Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing, PMID 30855850, retrieved 2023-01-11
^ Moore, Keith L.; Dalley, Arthur F.; Agur, Anne M. R. (2018). Clinically Oriented Anatomy (8th ed.). Wolters Kluwer. p. 735. ISBN 978-1-4963-4721-3.

Profunda femoris deep femoral artery at the Duke University Health System's Orthopedics program
Anatomy figure: 12:04-03 at Human Anatomy Online, SUNY Downstate Medical Center - "Arteries of the lower extremity shown in association with major landmarks."
Cross section image: pelvis/pelvis-e12-15—Plastination Laboratory at the Medical University of Vienna
MedEd at Loyola grossanatomy/dissector/labs/le/ant_th_leg/main.html
antthigh at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman (Georgetown University) (femoralart)